So 3 years down the road Iím out of the closet, it took Rob VLX and his love of his Prius C to bring me out! I figure If a manly man such as he can admit his Love then why cant I ďyes I drive a Prius and I to am sad to say I love itĒ
I have had the car for coming up in Jan will be 3 years, I have 80k on it and it has not given me a single problem.
I used to drive a 5 thousand pound Escalade EXT to and from the lake and all over the place. 90% of the time it was just me inside. So that alone was a complete waste. I keep my boat at the lake house so I donít need to tow far, I just needed a tow rig to haul my boat up and down the ramp and into my garage. So a fuel efficient car was now on my radar.
I fill 3 boats with gas as well as my Wifeís car. My gas bill was out of control. Most of my gas consumption was from my Escalade. It was time to get a new Escalade. I had over 100k on it and the Lease was up. It was get another one or try something more fuel efficient. I did a bunch of shopping around and couldnít find another SUV I liked as much as the Escalade. Some how I ended up at the Toyota dealership. I jumped in a Prius for a test drive and was pretty surprised at how much room it had and how it worked. When you get in a new car it takes awhile to figure out where all the buttons are and how everything works and the Prius just some how felt right all the buttons were in the right place and the nav worked just the way it should and believe it or not the Prius has some Items that the Escalade didnít even have. But no way in Hell was I going to drive what I call the ďFag-mobileĒ So I kept on shopping. BMW, Audi, VWís they were cool and all but they still IMO didnít work for me as well and had no where near the interior room as the Prius. No matter how much I shopped around the Prius kept making more and more sense. The Escalade was getting between 18-20 MPG. All the other smaller SUVís were not much better. I figured if I was going to make a switch and try and save some gas I might as well make it worth. Well in the First month I saved over $600 in Gas alone, The Prius paid for itself and the fuel in just what I was spending to push the Escalade down the road. Donít get me wrong its no BMW or Merc, Itís a cheep jap car with a video game inside. This became more apparent after driving my wifeís Lexus for a week before I got the Prius. Holly crap, talk about a rolling tin can. I drove it for 3 days before I ripped the whole car apart and sound deaden the entire car. Now my car is like a rolling recording studio super quite inside I love it. I get into other peoples cars and Iím like Dammm could this thing be any more noisy, letís take the ***-Mobile next time.
Here are some Picís of my Sound Deading project. It has a layer of Dyna matt like material against the raw metal and then a rubber sound blanket over the top of that,
The doors have a lead sheet between the outer skin and the door panel, Yes my car is super Quite.

Nice brother! I am glad you are out of the closet now. I figure I now have at least $100/week to blow on stuff other than gas. I do feel dorky driving it sometimes but I can deal with it. As crazy as it sounds I actually look forward to driving to work each morning now and when I hit bad traffic I can just sit back and listen to XM radio and chill while driving on side streets getting 60 MPG.

I am going to the gun range this weekend and can't wait to pull-up in a Prius and take out more assault rifles than any of the rednecks in their F350s have. I am picking up a custom Noveske AR-15 this week and slapping a Trijicon ACOG on it.

I agree. For what I do,(drive like a mad man) the car makes total sense. Im used to having a truck around .I had to build a work bench for my house. I went to home depot and planned out what i could fit in the car with all the seats down. I got them to cut a 4x8 sheet of plywood in 1/2 and I fit like 8 4x4's 8 foot length and a tone of other wood. I was at the check out register with the rolling cart full of wood and . I told the guy at the register, Im gonna fit all of this in my Prius. The guy was like Right! whats it going on the roof. I had parked right next to some Lifted short bed pick up truck. I happend to be loading my stuff just as he was loading his. These 2 guys in the truck becide me were like WTF is this guy in the prius doing. I loaded way more stuff in my car with the hatch back closed then they could put in the truck and They had to have the tail gate open. LOL
It was pretty funny.

This is funny because im goin through the same debate right now. Can i cut off my balls and get a car thats gets great gas mileage or do i keep my rover that gets 14mpg highway and looks badass. I know what i should do just having a hard time grasping

^^^I know where you are comming from. When I see some one in a fancy SUV now I kinda think back to yea I remember when it was important to me to drive somthing fancy. The way I saw it was I would rather spend $100k on a new boat than a new car, and that's what I did. To me a fancy new car is somthing I would just burn up. And yea it feels great to have a fancy cool car but for me it's all about getting from point A to B now cheaply and as efficiently so that I can WASTE money on gas and beer on the lake. Ya know save here so you can splurge elsewhere! But I'm sure if I was making $200+ a year I wouldn't be driving a Prius. A tesla or a Fisker would be on my radar!!

Always been a favorite of mine since as a kid. My buddy took me for a ride in his Nissan GTR that hes had tricked out...$%*@!!! He's still getting in the mid 30's MPG. We wont discuss how much coin hes put into the car cause he can afford it (Hes on his 4th set of tires this year)

My delima is..my burban and truck are paid off so its just expensive fills every week getting 10MPG (last fill) Weve learned to limit our runs, and errands but picking up kids to and from school is now starting to creap back into the wallet. I think most of our driving is hauling kids around (1/2 the time). Im ready to get a prison van that gets better milage Heck, might as well as the Warden (wife) knows my every move and has me chained LOL

Matt- both of our other vehicles were paid off too. A van that gets 20 MPG and a truck that gets 17-18 MPG. Adding the Prius, even with a $450 payment basically makes gas a non-issue. If you are picking up kids driving under 40 MPH back and forth you can easily get 60-65 MPG with a Prius. You'll find the math is close but the ability to load up and drive anywhere without worrying about the gas bill is damn nice. At 10 MPG I'd estimate it costs you around 40 cents per mile in gas. A Prius would drop that to under 7 cents. No brainer dude.

I honestly could afford to drive about anything and pay about anything in gas per month. However, 95% of the time I was in the car alone. I take people to lunch sometimes so I needed a 4 door car. I was getting so sick of spending $75 per fill-up with my truck. Now, my average fill-up if under $30 and I can drive 150 more miles per tank. It is awesome!! More money for other fun stuff. I honestly don't think one hybrid makes a bit of difference in terms of the environment. That was a non-issue to me. The issue was saving money and wow... I actually really love the car too.

Rob, Grant, I want to thank you guys for this info. Ive been kicking the idea of geting a gasser for a while after dumpin my paychecks into the tank lately My 02 DMax sits in the weed patch rotting away in the sun. I drive it rarely other than to the lake and back or to the dump. Ive averaged less than 2K miles a year on it the past 4 years. Its paid off and comes in handy when I need it. Its the friggin Burban with bigger tires thats the killjoy. Having 5 kids has a price but when 3/4 of the time is solo or grocery runs with one or two kids.....this makes alot of sense.

Are there any incentives (tax) for buying these (hybrids)? Im totally clueless on whats avail out there.

Here in the near future, Im planning on starting a small business which will involve alot of driving making visits/meetings so having something like this Im completely sold on. I think I'll be stopping by the Toyota dealership for a look this afternoon.

Rob, I spend 2 weeks driving 35-40mph on the Prudehoe oil Field so Im not a speed demon. Just sucks that Im pumping what seems like the same amount of what theyre pumping down the Alaska pipeline right into my burban

Hey keep in mind the Prius is not a cheep car, At lest the one I have, Its a 5. They come 1,2,3,4,5
Like a happy meal LOL. I payed 32 for my 5. Im not sure what the base model is but. If you don't drive all the much per year you can save alot but getting a cheaper "Non Hybrid" like a Chevy Cruze a simple gas motor in a light weight car for $17 to 20k leaves you $13 grand you saved on buying Prius to spend on gas. But after seeing how versital the hatch back design of the prius is and how easy you can stuff that thing full of what ever it would be hard for me to go with a regular 4 door with a trunk.

I have had my Prius for almost two years, 60m a day round trip to work. Same deal not one problem and already at 32K. Unfortunatly we have 3 cars (one SUV) but when the oldest goes to college we will have the Camry back for a few years.

I have the lowest model and got mine for $21.5 ++ It's no frills but I'm fine with that.

Also people think the Prius is some cheap econ box riding car. It is not! Very comfy and solid ride, atleast the newest body style cars are. I'd take this car on a cross county trip no problem. Wouldn't do that with a versa!

Grant, I swung by the dealership! I only had just a few minutes to kind of get an idea of how they looked and such, I'm impressed. I liked how roomy it was even in the back! I liked how the rear seats folded down for hauling stuff. The one I sat in had a sunroof which I thought was sweet, and the dash was pretty simple but like you guys said, it had alot of cool features and capabilities. Do you use the back up cam? Anyways I go back in two weeks for a ride to get the feel for it. I'll be looking at these other models you and others have mentioned as well.

Why do some salesman have to have gimmicks ("I'm the guy with the crazy socks, look! See!?"

Matt. The 4's come with the Solar Roof and the small 14 inch wheels they are pretty cool IMO but I have heard from people they are more of a gymic than anything. My'n is a 5 and I couldn't get a Solar roof. 5's come with the bigger 17 in wheels and LED headlights and Fog lights. I thought thoes options were a better trade off then the solar roof. Glad I did.

There is a aftermarket company called ROSIN they make a direct replacment DROP IN DVD/NAV unit for the Prius. Its plug and play installs in 5 min's and is $800 and its way better than the factory nav. You can even watch DVD on the move. So don't get attached to the factory nav ect. They have complete aftermarket Leather
interiors for cheep that you can install quick and easy as well so if you cant afford leather now no big deal.

Also the $4 thousand dollar "tec package". I.E the Auto Parking and lazer cruise control, and lane assist. all cool options when your at the dealer but somthing most people don't end up using down the road.

factory back up cam is AWESOME but you can add one aftermarket with the Rosin uint for $150 more

If I had to get another Prius I would get the "Prius Plus" its only $1800 more it has a few cool add on's with out looking fast and furious. If you didn't know what you were looking for you would just think its another prius so its diffrent if you know it but it blends right in if you dont.

One more cool note. You can slide the head rest off the Passenger seat and then slide forward and back the passenger to have almost a level surface from the back of the car all the way to the front. Example you can put a 8 foot ladder in your car and close the hatch No problem. You can put a road or Mountain Bike inside with out taking either wheels off. Its pretty crazy

For those that have the "regular" prius is there enough height in the hatch area to have a 50 pound dog in there with a pet barrier or would a prius V be the only way to fit a dog in the back? how about a prius C? is there room behind the back seat that is tall enough for a dog?

Grant,
I totally respect you for your decision. 4yrs ago the wife and I were in a similar position. We had a baby on the way and were in need of a new vehicle. I have a Tahoe 2dr, the wife had a VW Beetle Conv. Mine was paid off, here's was 6mo from being paid off. What to do???

We ended up getting a 2009 VW CC. It would become my daily driver and also the family vehicle for the weekend and long trips. It's not a Prius in terms of MPG, but on the highway we are getting 32-36. From May to Sept we easily travel 350 tot he beach house. In fuel alone we have save huge. As it sits right now. two cars paid off, and a third that is getting paid off within another 3 years.

July of this year I was forced to drive the Tahoe for the entire month. HOLY SMOKES did I burn a ton of fuel just to and from work. Not to mention the 350mi trips to the beach house. I was upwards of $500 for the monthly fuel bill just for the Tahoe. I was brutal! (but I do love that truck)

Cascade makes some GREAT products. A much better quality than the Dynamat. I have used both and love the Cascade products. They are slightly more $$$ but the end result in any vehicle is well worth the it.

I have had a Prius since 2006. I bought mine when the gas prices were starting to Go higher, but my main reason for getting one was commuting in the carpool lane in California. My car paid for itself from the first month in fuel savings coming from a three-quarter ton suburban with a 496 in.≥ engine. Today I still have the same car it has 120k and has never failed me. I did rebuild the entire Suspension mostly to improve handling and I also change the wheels out for Scion TC 17 inchers as they are very cheap. Would i buy one again? Probably not as I can't commute in the carpool lane with it but a Volt would allow me to, so the next car will probably be a Chevy. My brother bought a 2012 Prius for his wife and it is a very nice car and anyone who drives one for a long time can't really complain much about them.